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GBOROa WATTERSON 
MR. SMITH'S DESCRIPTION OF WASHINGTON 
National Intellirencer, Au gus t 26, 1847 



In the brief but interesting description of Washington in 1800 by ?r. 
John Cotton Smith, published in the Intelligencer of Friday last, I- find that he 
has fallen into one or two errors, which it may be proper to correct. "The surface 
of the city generally", he observes, "being covered with scrub-oak bushes on the 
higher grounds and on the marshy soil either trees ot some sort of shrubbery". 
The scrub-oak was not grown in this District. The trees which covered the surface 
of the city at the period it was laid out, consisted of the oak, hickory, walnut, 
pine, chestnut, &c. of the largest growth, and what Mr. SmithAwas the undergrowth 
which had been left after the forests had been felled. By an ggreement entered 
into between the original proprietors and the commissioners of the city, all the 
wood on the lands of the former was to be their property; but if any should be de- 
sired by the President of the United States, or left standing, it was to be paid 
for by the Governnent, at a just and reasonable valuation, exclusive of the amount 
paid for the lands. It is much to be renretted that the native forest trees which 
originally covered a large portion of the surface of our city, had not been per- 
mitted to remain where the avenues run or the public reservations vere laid off. 
These now would have been a beautiful ornament to the city; but, as no proposition 
of this sort was made to the proprietors, and as they had received no compensation 
for the lands occupied by the avenues, streets and open spaces, and had riven about 
the half of the ground formed into squares and lots, they reserved to themselves 
the wood with which the land was covered, and either consumed it or disposed of it 
to their own advantage. Before the period spoken of ly Mr. Smith the trees had been 
filled, ith the exception of a few in the Capitol square and otherp laces, all of 



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which have now disappeared. Of the condition of our metropolis, some years prior 
to the period referred to, I transcribe a brief extract from a work I am now/ pre- 
paring on the city: "As my eye glanced upon the imposing and massive structure 
near me, and ranged over the extended landscape reposing in the softness of moon- 
light, my mind insensibly reverted to the condition of our metropolis, when, as a 
woodland scene, it first burst upon my boyish eye. I remembered distinctly the 
windings of the picturesque stream called the Tiber, gliding alonr between magnificent 
oaks, and underwood, and expanding almost to the magnitude of a river as it flowed 
into the broad Potomac. This stream was once called Goose Greek and, in sprinr and 
autumn, overspread with wild ducks, and often penetrated as far as the present Rail- 
road depot by multitudes of shad, herrings, pike, perch, Sec. It is said to have 
darived its classical name from a European who owned a farm near the Capitofc, and 
whose name was Pope. But it is called the Tiber in deeds nearly two centuries old. 
' He called his fam Rome, the stream at the bottom of it the Tiber, and the hill 
above Capitol Hill, on which he is said to have predicted, many years before the 
event took place, that a magnificent edifice would be erected which would be called 
the Capitol". 

"Instead of recognizing", says Mr. Smith, "the avenues and streets por- 
trayed on the plan of the city, not one was visible, unless we except a road with 
two buildings on each side of it, called the New Jersey avenue". 

This is an error; long before 1800 the leading avenues were formed by 
cutting down the trees in the woods through which they passed, and could be dis- 
tinctly seen from the Capitol. In 1793, however, the road leading from the 
President's iouse (called by the Commissioner the President's Palace) to the 
Capitol, passed near the present General Post Office building, about two souares 
north of the Avenue, and the Tiber was crossed by a rude bridge formed of a single 
log, and a little above by a few large stones, which, when the water was low, rendered 



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the creek fordable. Tt was alonr this road that the procession, headed by General 
ffasnington passed to lay the corner-stone of the Capitol; and, though the ■iwlliiil ■ 
composing this procession were not great, it took thera sone time to cross the lop 
bridge of which I have spoken. The ceremony was concluded with a barbecue riven In 
honor of the occasion, not far from the spot where he afterwards erected two fine 
brick buildings, which were destroyed by the British army, under General Ross, durinp 
the last war. The spring from which the water was obtained was at the bottom of the 
hill on which the houses referred to stood, and is still there, end labitus et labitur 
in onme volubili.3 aevum. The public road leading into fontgomery county wound round 
the hill and passed within a few yards of this spring which was sheltered by large 
oak trees, some of which were standing as 1 te as the year 1815. " r. J'.ith is 

correct in saying that the only two really comforaable habitations in all respects, 

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f within the bounds of the city at that tirie, were those of Daniel (not Dudley) Carroll 



Nott*n Young, 



and Hott*n Young, two of the original proprietors. The old doraicil of Vr. Carroll, 
in consequence of its being on part of a street, was pulled down by 'ajor L*Infant, 
the engineer, and, as it would seen, without th>*f order of the Commissioners, who 
subsequently dismissed him for it, and another more spacious one, built in its stead, 
which is now occupied by t)yf worthy and venerable citizen. At the commencement of 
the city the only brick building on the banks of the Potomac was the one owned, and 
occupied by v 'r. Notjafg Young. It was built of brick imported from ilm-land about 
fifty years before, was beautifully situated, and the grounds around it highly im- 
proved. Yrom the want of a church, this hou;e was occasionally used as a place of 
worship by the Roman Catholics, and the officiating priest, at the time alluded to, 
was the Rev. "r. Plunkett. Mr. Young's house, like "r. 'larroll'a, was on one of the 
streets; but, in consequence of the interposition of General Washington, who wrote to 
the Commissioners on the subject, it was allowed to stand, but is very different from 
what it once wajr. 



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The north wing of the Capitol alone was finished at the time of which 
"r. ,jj.iith speaks. The first Senate Chamber occupied about the same space as it 
now does, except that the floor was in the first story, and extended in a semi- 
circle to the roof. The present Court room aid not then exist. The Chamber pre- 
pared for the accomodation of the House of nepresentatives was in the western part 
of the buildinr and extenued nearly the whole length of the wing from north to 
south. The access to the gallery of both chambers was ny a hanging staircase, 
which sprung from the first floor in the small rotundo in the southern part 
of the wing, and contained a circular gallery, from which you entered the different 
doors. The Library, then small, was placed in a room south of the Senate Chamber, 
now used, in part as a committee room. The original plan furnished by Dr. Thornton 
was almost wholly changed oy Mr. Latrobe, who subsequently became the architect of 
the Capitol, and who was a man of fine taste and great skill in his profession. 

The block of houses spoken of by Mr. Snith as being east of the Capitol, 
was a large brick builainf erected by Rr. Janiel Carroll, and occupied by ; r. 
S-tti±s as a tavftrn, and another adjoining the large edifice built for the accomoda- 
tion of Congress after the late war, and occupied by a I r. Tunnecliff, called the 
City Hotel. There was another block built by ;ir. Thomas L- : w, on the New Jersey 
Avenue, called the Ten Build inrs, in which the national Intelligencer was first 
issued. 

Mrs. John Adans thus speaks of the city in 1801: "Here and there", she 
writes, "is a small cot, without a glass window, interspersed among the forests, 
through which you travel for miles without seeing a human being. The house is upon 
a grand and superb scale, requiring about 30 servants to keep the apartments in 
proper order. I could content myself almost anywhere three months; but, surrounded 
by forests, can you believe tnat wood is not to be had, because people cannot be 
found to cut ind cart it? The house is made habitable, but there is not a sinrle 



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apartment In it finished. We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience 
without, and the great unfinished audience room I make a WmX* room of, to han t 
up the clothes in. It is a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement and the 
more I view it the wore I am delighted witn it.' 



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